Presenting in a webinar

Some time last year I was asked to speak in one of the webinars in the “New Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models andrecommendations” series run this year by the IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning and IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group, with the American Library Association (ALA). As a co-manager of LISNPN I was asked to speak for ten minutes about how the network began and developed, to share our experiences of setting it up and running it, and to offer some tips to any LIS new professionals who might be looking to set up similar networks.

I had never even attended a webinar before, let alone presented in one, so I was nervous to say the least, but I accepted the invitation as it sounded like a fantastic opportunity both to further promote LISNPN on an international level, and to develop my own presenting skills. 

The first thing I did when I started preparing was to ask Ned, who created and developed LISNPN, to send me any useful information he had about its beginnings; I joined the admin team a few months before the network was launched, but as I was not involved in its inception, I was aware that I was missing information which could be useful for anyone wanting to create a similar network. Ned was really helpful and sent me lots of information about how the network began and what kinds of promotion were most effective.

This isn’t specific to a webinar presentation, but I found it really difficult to fit everything I wanted to say into ten minutes! This is a problem I’ve had with every presentation I’ve done so far, and so I made sure that I started preparing it a few months before the webinar, so I would have plenty of time to re-work it and get it down to the right length. 

Having never participated in a webinar before, I did a bit of research so I would know what to expect. I read Jo’s and Bethan’s excellent posts on presenting in a webinar, which offered some really helpful tips on how to prepare and present. Realising from this that I would need some headphones and a microphone, I asked them and others on Twitter whether they would recommend a particular set. In the end I purchased these which were fine; I could hear everything well and apparently I could be heard clearly too.

As I was not going to be seen by my audience, I decided to write a script to read from. I didn’t want to risk losing my way or getting flustered, for two reasons: 1) I only had ten minutes in which to speak, with a lot to fit in during that time, so I didn’t want to risk wasting any speaking time, and 2) as I wasn’t standing in front of the audience, if I went quiet then the audience and organisers wouldn’t know why and might ask if I was still there, which would be even more off-putting! At the same time, I was aware that a script can sound very unnatural, so I made sure I practised it enough times that I knew the material, that I knew where each sentence was going, and could inject some natural speech into it as I went along. Reading from my script worked well for me during the webinar – it ensured that I included everything that I wanted to, and because of my practice I think I made it sound natural. However, I was very careful to turn the pages over quietly, having heard what sounded like the rustle of paper during one of the presentations before mine! I haven’t heard the recording yet so I don’t know whether this was successful!

When creating my PowerPoint presentation, I decided to keep it very minimal as I didn’t have much in the way of facts and figures to share. I mainly used it to display links to LISNPN, to blog posts about LISNPN and for my email address and Twitter handle, thinking that, being an online event, attendees could just click straight through to these and, for example, be looking at LISNPN whilst listening to me talk.  

We had a practice in the webinar tool a couple of weeks before the webinar, which was really helpful. My biggest tip for anyone presenting in a webinar would be to have a practice run! This meant that I knew how to dial in and how the webinar tool worked, as well as being able to check that my headphones and microphone were OK. I would recommend Skype for dialing in; very easy and it didn’t cost me very much at all. The tool was fairly easy to use. Presenters were muted until it was their turn to speak. We would send our PowerPoints in advance and when it was our turn, our presentation would be loaded up already. There were simple “back” and “next” buttons to move through our slides as we spoke. Down one side of the page was a chat box which all attendees could use to ask questions, pick up on things etc, and which the speakers could also use to answer the questions or engage in discussions. I was told that it could be a quite an intense hour, but that it would be fun! After the practice I felt much less nervous and was looking forward to the webinar. 

Unfortunately, on the day we had lots of technical problems! I was actually unable to log in to the webinar tool, so I was unable to see or join in with the chat box, or to see my or the others’ slides. Luckily I was still able to dial in, so I could listen and speak. This made presenting a bit tricky; as I couldn’t see my slides I had to rely on one of the organisers moving through them for me, meaning that I had to introduce verbal cues to move to the next slide into my presentation, and as I couldn’t see the chat box, meant that I felt like I was talking to myself, which was a strange feeling! I think I still gave a good presentation, but I was really disappointed to not be able to see or join in with the chat box. One of the organisers passed questions on to me verbally, and I was able to answer verbally, but I feel like I missed out on the overall webinar experience by not being able to engage that way. Afterwards, a very kind audience member emailed me a transcript of the chat box, so I was at least able to see what was said and asked eventually, which was great. 

Despite not being able to engage in the webinar tool, the online nature of the event made it easy to engage on Twitter. There was a hashtag for the webinar and, although lots of people tweet during conference presentations, I felt like the fact that the webinar was online allowed more people to tweet and engage with others’ tweets i.e. it wasn’t restricted to people with smartphones. I was able to see what attendees were saying about my presentation, thank those who had directed positive comments towards me (I had put my Twitter name on the first slide), engage in discussions with attendees, and express my disappointment at not being able to join in fully due to the technical problems (this is what prompted aforementioned lovely person to copy and paste the chat box for me). Being online, I had Facebook and LISNPN open at the same time, and it was thrilling to see the Facebook “Likes” for the LISNPN page flooding into my notifications, and the number of new members appearing on LISNPN throughout the webinar!

I really enjoyed having presenting in a webinar. I loved the level of engagement with attendees that it allows, and it was great to reach an international audience. I just wish that I could have logged into the webinar tool and been able to participate fully! I definitely hope that I have the chance to speak in a webinar again, and that there will be no technical issues next time. My slides are below if anyone would like to have a look, and I will post a link to the webinar recording when it is available. Thank you very much to Loida and the IFLA NPSIG for inviting me to be a speaker!

LISNPN from rachel_s_b

Tips for applying for conference bursaries/sponsored places

As conference season has started and LIS people, in particular new professionals, are starting to look at how they could attend events despite the costs, I thought it would be a good time to share some tips for applying for bursaries and sponsored places to events. This is based on my fairly recent experiences of winning a sponsored full place to attend Umbrella2011 and also helping to judge the applications for a sponsored place to a conference last year.

So you’ve found a conference you really want to attend, but you don’t think your workplace will be able to finance it - or perhaps you’re a student, temporary worker or currently unemployed and would need to fund yourself. Where should you look to find opportunities to apply for bursaries or sponsored places? Mailing lists are a really good place to find them; they are generally advertised here. In the UK, the LIS-LINK, LIS-AWARDS and LIS-PROFESSION Jiscmail lists are good ones to keep an eye on (I’m afraid I can’t recommend listservs outside of the UK as I don’t know them very well). You’ll often see them Tweeted as well; follow the Twitter accounts of your local CILIP branch, Special Interest Groups and CILIPInfo. Opportunities will often be posted on the LISNPN forums so it’s worth checking those too, as well as the webpages for your local CILIP branch and the Special Interest Groups of which you are member, and of course those of any other professional associations you are a part of, such as SLA. Generally you will need to be a member of the CILIP branch or Special Interest Group to apply for the bursary, so this does necessitate being a member of CILIP. I have many complaints about CILIP and their membership fees, but the opportunity to apply for sponsored places is for me a benefit of being a CILIP member. If anyone reading this is aware of sources for bursaries for LIS events which do not require a membership to the group or association offering it, please do add a comment below for the benefit of those looking for them.

Once you’ve found a sponsored place or bursary that you want to apply for, the first thing to do is to check that you are eligible. It sounds simple but do read the instructions carefully, as it only wastes yours and others’ time if you turn out to not be eligible. As previously mentioned, in my experience some kind of membership is usually required, and the opportunity may be restricted to people in certain geographical areas or at certain points in their career. It’s also helpful for those judging if you indicate your eligibility; this doesn’t have to be in the actual application, but do state in your covering email or letter that you are a member of the SIG/a member of the local branch/a new professional etc.

Similarly, take some time to read exactly what they are asking for in the application, and address this clearly. Many will simply ask for a paragraph or a certain number of words on why you want to attend and/or what the benefits of attendance will be for you, but others might ask you to address two or three questions. Treat it like a job application where you need to go through the person specification and explicitly indicate how you meet it; don’t just write a very general paragraph if they have asked specific questions. Look for a word count and stick to it if one is given!

In a similar vein, show that you have taken the time to find out what the conference is about and have considered how this is suitable for you; address the theme of the conference in your application and explain why you feel this makes the conference an ideal or important one for you to attend. If a conference programme is available, have a look at it and pick out the specific sessions which you think would be most useful/beneficial to you, and refer to these in your application. This again shows that you have a genuine interest in the themes and topics of this particular conference, and are not just wanting to go to “a conference”.

Explain what the benefits of your attendance would be – to you, to your service/colleagues, and to any other areas of the LIS community in which you are involved. It’s great that you’re interested in the conference, but what the judges want to see is more than just interest, it’s the reasons why you are the person who would actually benefit most from it, the person to whom the award would be most useful.

Most bursaries/sponsored places have conditions attached; usually a write-up for one of the group/branch’s publications. Mention this in your application to indicate that you’ve registered the conditions and are willing and able to meet them. If there are no conditions given in the guidelines, then mention your willingness to write up your reflections or share them in any other ways that would be useful. This demonstrates your appreciation of the opportunity and your understanding of the importance of sharing learning and outcomes from events with your peers.

Once your application is finished (and proofread and spell-checked!), it’s a good idea to send it in advance of the deadline, just in case the person collating the applications has any problems opening your document.

My final tip is to just go for it – what have you got to lose?! 

If anyone has any other tips or experiences they’d like to share, please do leave a comment.

Good luck everyone!

Time management

Time management is something that began to worry me about a year ago – I wrote about it here. At the time, I felt I was doing well with it so far, but I was about to take on extra work due to a colleague leaving; that, and the general busy nature of my workplace, made me begin to think about whether I needed to improve. Working in a small campus library, my tasks and responsibilities cover a wide range of areas, from subject liaison to line management (and a bit of acquisitions and serials in the middle!), and so it’s really important for me to organise my workload well to ensure that I stay on top of everything, when I am moving between so many different things – particularly when we are doing a lot of project work for our eventual closure and move to the main campus. I am worried about losing or forgetting things, and can identify a few occasions over the past year where I’ve not been happy with my time management. My line manager doesn’t think I have a problem, but at my insistence, improving my time management is appraisal objective for me, as well as one of the objectives on my Chartership PPDP, so when an internal time management course was offered for staff at my institution, I took the opportunity to attend. 

I usually like to write really positive reflections on courses that I attend, but this one unfortunately didn’t tell me that much that I didn’t know already! I was hoping not just for tips on time management, but for some ideas about tools we could use; I have tried Nirvana but didn’t get on with it, so was hoping for some more ideas – but when I asked the course presenter about these tools, she looked blank. She had never heard of Nirvana and knew of no others, and suggested that Outlook calendar is a good tool to use, but that there was no need to use technology if we didn’t find it useful. I agree that we shouldn’t use online tools for the sake of it, if they don’t work for us, but I expected someone teaching a course on time management to at least be aware of them! 

There is one way in which the course has been quite useful, and that is in helping me to think about how to prioritise my work and create a more effective to-do list. I was already using my Outlook calendar to block out time, add reminders to myself, and plan my work in order to meet deadlines, as well as written to-do lists, but I was aware that I wasn’t always reflecting priority in these. The trainer introduced us to a matrix from The seven habits of highly effective people, in we considered what of our work was important and urgent (i.e. the stuff that needs to be done right now), urgent but not important (i.e. something which someone asks you to do urgently, which may be important to them but not to you), important but not urgent (i.e. the long-term stuff: strategic planning, training and CPD, admin etc.), and neither important nor urgent (so why are you doing this work?) (Covey, 1989). The trainer pointed out that if we don’t spend time on the important but not urgent stuff, it will eventually become important and urgent, potentially causing us stress and pressure and not being done as well as it could be. This is something that I realised I needed to work on; I tended to plan the important and urgent work well, but not pay so much attention to the important but not urgent tasks. I often put some of them into my Outlook calendar, but if they were pushed aside by something urgent/important (or something urgent/not important), I tended not to reschedule them. Since attending the course, I have spent  more time considering the important/non-urgent work that I do, making sure I schedule it in, and re-scheduling for another time soon i.e. the next day it if it absolutely has to be put aside for something urgent. The trainer pointed out that we need to consider the impact on our workload when asked to take on a non-important urgent task, but this is something at which I was quite good already – I am comfortable telling someone if I can’t do the thing they’re asking me to do straightaway, and giving them a time or date by which I will able to do it. As well as considering my long-term workload in a more effective way, this matrix has also helped me to write my to-do lists in priority order, based on thinking about my tasks in terms of these four boxes.  

I am going to share this useful aspect of the course with colleagues when I help to run a staff development session on time management soon.

A couple of weeks ago I had this year’s performance development review (appraisal), and discussed my reflections on the occasions where my time management had not been so good, and my desire to keep it as an objective, with my line manager, who did not share my concerns. When we looked at feedback from colleagues, it was interesting to see that most of them had said that I was very organised, with one of them even picking out a project as an example of this, which I had picked out as an example of my poor time management! I am now starting to wonder whether my time management is actually much better than I believe it to be. Even so, I think I would like to continue to work on improving my time management skills, in particular my ability to prioritise well and to devote some time to the long-term aspects of my work, as hopefully this will help me to feel calmer and more in control of things; even if all appears fine to my colleagues, and is in fact fine, I sometimes feel flustered or like I’m about to forget something important!

I’d love to hear your time management tips; have you found any tools which really work for you? And does anyone else worry about their time management?

Getting back on track with my Chartership portfolio

It’s nearly a year ago that I registered for Chartership, found myself a mentor, went along to a “Preparing for Chartership and Certification” course and wrote this enthusiastic post about how I could totally do this whole Chartership thing, aiming to be ready to submit by July 2012. However, in recent months I have been feeling a bit lost with it, knowing that I am doing loads of stuff to go into my portfolio and developing personally and professionally, but feeling like I am too disorganised and losing my grip on actually building my portfolio. The first #chartership chat on Twitter in February left me feeling like everyone except me was on top of things, so I decided it was time to do something about it! I booked myself onto a “Building your portfolio” course which was running in Bath on 3^rd March, and designated the 2^nd March, a day which I was taking off work in order to use up annual leave, to my portfolio.

Yesterday was my “Chartership day” and I’m really glad I decided to spend a day looking at my portfolio; I started to sort myself out and feel better about it. The evening before, I had joined in on the second #chartership Twitter chat, and found it much more useful now that I knew I was going to give some time to sorting my progress out. I reflected on my PPDP, realising that I have met several of my development needs already and have lots of evidence to demonstrate this, a couple of my development needs are no longer relevant or applicable because of changes in priorities at work, one still needs more work, and I needed to add several more as a result of changes, both in my role and in my personal ambitions, over the past year. I also looked at the criteria and began to identify where the gaps are in the evidence I’ve collected so far, which has helped me to identify where I still have work to do. I was left feeling like I had made more progress than I realised, I knew what I still needed to do, and I could maybe even make the deadline I originally set for myself.

Today was the “Building your portfolio” course, which I found really helpful and motivating. Nicki and Lizz reminded us of various bits of the regulations, and some tips for building a portfolio in terms of collecting, organising and presenting evidence, and writing the evaluative statement. There was lots of interactivity throughout the morning which I found useful; sharing experiences and ideas with others is a really good way of prompting new thoughts I think. The most useful exercise for me was one in which we took a large sheet of flip-chart paper, divided it into sections for each of the criteria given in the Chartership handbook, and in small groups discussed what kinds of things we could use as evidence for each one. I found this helpful for two reasons; firstly because others in the session suggested items of evidence that I hadn’t thought of, thus providing me with some further ideas for demonstrating that I have met the criteria, and also because discussing the types of evidence for each criterion confirmed to me that I had correctly identified the gaps in my portfolio yesterday. The other aspects of the workshop which I found particularly useful were the opportunities to look at successful portfolios, and to discuss issues, ideas and questions with other MCLIP candidates. The #chartership Chat on Twitter is a great place to do this, but not everyone is on Twitter, and so events like this provide a valuable opportunity to meet and speak with other candidates from a variety of backgrounds.

One of the questions I was still pondering when I turned up at the course this morning was how to organise my collection of evidence; how and where to keep it all? I have a folder at work into which I put any pieces of paper which could be used as evidence, and my electronic evidence is spread out across my work filespace, laptop filespace, and email inboxes – really not organised enough at this stage! Lizz and Nicki gave us several suggestions for this, and as a result of their ideas I am going to try using Dropbox as a place to store all of my evidence. It can be used online in a web browser but you can also download it to sync with your desktop and your smartphone, so it’s a good way of storing documents so that they can be accessed from wherever you are. I will keep the print folder in case I want to add anything for which I have no electronic version, but as you can now submit your portfolio completely in electronic form (hooray!) I am not going to keep duplicate print copies; I will get rid of anything in that folder which I have in electronic copy, and make sure the electronic copy is in my Dropbox.

A few other useful tips that I picked up from today are:

• Assessors are now failing portfolios if any of the evidence contains personal data for other people, or breaches copyright. Be really careful to anonymise anything referring to other people, do not reveal sensitive data, and consider copyright laws and good practice. I know that after putting all that work in, I would find it really frustrating to fail on something like this so I am going to check everything really carefully!

• Don’t make the assessor think! Make sure your portfolio is clear and well laid-out, and that the evidence you point to in your evaluative statement is easy to locate. If your assessor has to start thinking about how they are supposed to find things in your portfolio, they will begin to look at it in a more critical light.

• Don’t make your own copy of your portfolio; it will be sent back to you so you will have a copy to keep.

• The Chartership matrix can be a useful tool when you’re coming to the end of building your portfolio, and want to select only the really relevant evidence from what you’ve amassed. Fill in this grid with your various bits of evidence, and then you can easily see which pieces meet all of the criteria; these should be the ones to go in your portfolio.

• And finally, as previously mentioned, it is now possible to submit your portfolio completely electronically! It will still need to be in triplicate though, so you will need to send it on three USB sticks or discs. More information on this new development is available on the CILIP website.

I left the course feeling really positive and looking forward to getting back into building my portfolio. We were very helpfully provided with the forthcoming assessment board dates, which has helped me to form a deadline: I would like to have submitted my portfolio by the end of August of this year. My next step now is getting my evidence collected so far into some kind of order in my Dropbox by criteria, and starting to create something that actually looks like a portfolio.